Popular culture is a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output, and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a society at a given point in time. It is also known as mass culture or pop culture. Popular culture encompasses the activities and ideas that are heavily influenced by mass media, and it permeates the everyday lives of people in a given society. Popular culture can influence an individuals attitudes towards certain topics, and it can be defined in a variety of conflicting ways by different people across different contexts.

Popular culture is determined by the interactions between people in their everyday activities, such as styles of dress, the use of slang, greeting rituals, and the foods that people eat. It is also informed by the mass media, including music, art, literature, fashion, dance, film, cyberculture, television, and linguistic conventions. Popular culture is usually associated with either mass culture or folk culture, and differentiated from high culture and various institutional cultures.

Popular culture is driven by marketing, and entire industries exist to convince people that their desires and needs will be best met through shopping. Popular culture industries must continuously reinvent themselves, and being popular today is not a guarantee of longevity. Hierarchical diffusion plays prominently in popular culture diffusion, and larger places tend to generate many of pop culture’s hit songs, clothing styles, and food trends.

Popular culture covers large populations with access to similar goods and services, but the pressing need to sell drives almost incessant modification, generally at a fast pace. Popular culture is important in American society because it provides us with a unique national culture, helps to bridge our many differences, and provides us with some commonality in a society that is so diverse.